| Fifty years ago, Edward Levi was sworn in as Attorney General of the United States. He was an unusual but inspired choice. |
| More academic than a hard-boiled prosecutor, he was charged by President Gerald Ford with restoring the integrity of the Department of Justice, the reputation of which was sullied by the Watergate scandal. And that he did. |
| He had a clear-eyed vision of the department’s role. “The Department,” Levi said, “has to be a special advocate, not only in defending governmental decisions at law, but in the attempt to infuse into them the qualities and values which are of the utmost importance to our constitutional system. Thus, there must be a special concern for fair, orderly, efficient procedures, for the balance of constitutional rights, and for questions of federalism and the proper regard for the separation of powers.” |
| “Probably more than any other attribute,” Levi observed, “the quality of our administration of justice tells us the kind of country we now have and will have in the future. The fair application of law is a pledge to the future, as it is also a guardian of our present rights and liberties.” |
| Where is Levi when we need him? Where is his leadership of the Justice Department when we need it? |
| And need it we do. The depth of that need is why I have chosen Attorney General Pam Bondi as this year’s worst legal decision. |
| Okay, so maybe I should say worst legal decision maker. |
| In less than a year, Bond has torn down Levi’s vision brick by brick. The fair application of the law has been replaced with a vision of law serving the president’s whims and desires. |
| As the New Yorker’s Ruth Marcus puts it, “During the past six months, Bondi has presided over the most convulsive transition of power in the Justice Department since the Watergate era, and perhaps in the hundred-and-fifty-five-year history of the department. No Attorney General has been as aggressive in reversing policies or firing personnel. None has been as willing to cede the department’s traditional independence from the White House.” |
| Under her leadership, the Justice Department “has vigorously defended even the most extreme elements of Trump’s agenda…. Bondi has embraced the President’s most outlandishly unqualified nominees…and attacked 'rogue judges’ who stand in her way…. Most alarming,” Marcus adds, “Bondi’s Justice Department has demonstrated a willingness to use criminal law to exact revenge against Trump’s political enemies.” |
| As Chad Mizelle, Bondi’s chief of staff, gleefully characterizes the new order, “’In Trump’s second term…the handcuffs are taken off…. We actually get to do everything that the President wants us to do, everything that Pam wants us to do.’” |
| It is hard to imagine that anyone in Levi’s Justice Department would have said such a thing. But fifty years is a long time, and history is now moving in a different direction. |
| Recall the relief that many Americans felt when former Congressman Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first AG nominee, went down in flames. When Trump nominated Bondi to replace him, some people praised the choice, citing the professionalism and fair-mindedness Bondi had displayed during her service as Florida’s Attorney General. |
| During her confirmation hearings, Bondi repeatedly emphasized her independence and her intention not to “weaponize” the Department of Justice. “If confirmed,” she said, “I will work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice—and each of its components. Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all.” |
| Tell that to former FBI Director and Trump’s political enemy, James Comey, or to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who prosecuted the president for falsifying business records. |
| Recall President Trump’s infamous September 20 post to Truth Social. “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, 'same old story as last time, all talk, no action.’ Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam 'Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.” |
| “We can’t delay any longer,” the president continued, “it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT” |
| “One tier of justice”? Far from it, Bondi did what she was told. |
| Five days later, Comey was indicted and charged with lying to Congress. On October 9, James was indicted and charged with fraud in a mortgage application. |
| A Brennan Center for Justice report notes that “This level of presidential interference in prosecutorial decision-making contradicts everything our country has done in the post-Watergate era to protect against corruption in the justice system. This isn’t the first time Trump has interfered with the DOJ’s independence…but it is the most egregious.” |
| “The administration directly intervened to indict one of the president’s personal enemies after he openly called for it—demanded it, even. This is as far as it is possible to be from an indictment based on the facts and the law.” |
| Bondi tipped her hand during her confirmation hearings when she praised “President Trump’s leadership” for demonstrating “what is possible when a President is unafraid to do things that have been deemed 'too difficult’…. Like the President, I believe we are on the 'cusp of a New Golden age’ where the Department of Justice can and will do better.” |
| Golden Age? Maybe in an authoritarian regime where prosecuting political opponents is the order of the day. |
| But as Ruth Marcus explains, that is not the view of many people inside and outside the Justice Department. “They shared criticism of Bondi that ranged from troubled to appalled, worrying about everything from what one former senior official called Bondi’s 'ferociously sycophantic’ rhetoric about the President to the purges of career staff. Bondi, many have concluded, has turned the Justice Department into a mere arm of the White House.” |
| In a March speech at the Department of Justice, President Trump made his agenda clear. “As we begin a proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice…, we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls. Unfortunately, in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations.” He promised to clean house by firing “all the radical left pro-crime US attorneys appointed by Joe Biden.” |
| “We will expel,” he promised, “the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose and very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct of which was levels—you’ve never seen anything like it…. It’s going to be legendary. It’s going to also be legendary for the people that are able to seek it out and bring justice.” |
| Trump ended by quoting the philosopher John Locke: “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.” |
| Thanks to Pam Bondi and her fealty to the president’s agenda, 2025 saw a steady march from law to tyranny. It will take the second coming of Edward Levi to clean up the mess she made this year. |
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